Study nature and consciousness to inform your vision and career
Catherine Sensei begins this episode explaining, “The natural cycles of nature are in essence the same as the natural cycles of dharma, karma and consciousness.” There’s a natural wisdom and compassion we can access both studying nature and studying consciousness. Doug and Catherine Sensei discuss that society`s number one function is “to free people to explore.” However, because of our busy lives and our clinging to security, very few people take the time to map out and study how their mind works, how their consciousness works. “ Our ego looks for security which leads us into anxiety and missing the wonder. “You need a vision bigger than your lifetime and bigger than yourself. Otherwise the ego will always feel insecure”, Doug and Catherine explain.
This excerpt was taken from the “Right Effort – Career and Creativity” talk, session 1 from the “Year of Victory” classes 2017, at Clear Sky Retreat Center in B.C., Canada. To register for our mailing list visit us at www.planetdharma.com
Our “Body of Truth” creative visualization retreats are an excellent way to spend focused time studying the interplay of nature and consciousness. See https://www.planetdharma.com/events/category/retreats/ to see our upcoming schedule.
Podcast Transcription:
Catherine Sensei: So we need awareness about natural cycles of nature which are in essence the same as the natural cycles of dharma, of karma and of consciousness. So we’re just paying attention.
Qapel: Exactly. And to do this, we need to understand how things work. So we need to understand how nature works. We need to understand how consciousness works. In order to understand how consciousness works, your primary lab or testing ground is your own mind. And the problem with society is that so much energy is going into trivia, so much energy is going into consumption, that very few people can take the time out, or very few people do take the time out, to actually map and study how their mind works and how their consciousness works. Because if you are studying how your consciousness works, you’re also studying nature – because your mind is part of nature.
So if we want to understand a bumblebee, we need to understand our mind. And if we want to understand our mind we can understand a bumblebee. So nature and consciousness are the same thing in the end. So Catherine, when we understand these cycles better, what can we do?
CS: We are better able to judge what is compassionate.
Q: That’s really, really important. You can’t really decide whether something is compassionate or not if it’s driven by ego greed and ego attachment and consumption. It’s very hard to tell what’s compassionate if the group consciousness is operating out of attachment and clinging.
CS: So if we know that beings turn towards the light, in the sense of seeking goodness, then of course we naturally want to provide that and do provide that. We don’t understand that beings turn towards the light and then give them shade. That wouldn’t make any sense and that would be more effort for less beauty.
Q: So let’s flip it. When we understand all the forces at work, when we understand nature, when we understand consciousness, when we understand how things connect to each other, we automatically pick the best choice. It’s automatic. It’s also the most compassionate. Automatically we pick the best choice that is the most compassionate. It’s also the least effort. It’s automatic.
CS: Because it’s in line with natural laws.
Q: Even though the ego may not like it. The ego may want the third beer, but the consciousness goes, “No, a glass is good”. So when we say the ego doesn’t like it, it doesn’t mean that it’s unwholesome. It means that the ego is rooted or stuck in its patternings of attachment and clinging – to basically pacify itself. That’s what the ego always does. In short, the ego takes a lot of effort that it doesn’t need to exert for most things because the ego’s job is basically, 1) to make distinctions and choices from options, having studied nature to see what is the most effective result. So the most beautiful is the transcendental. So the ego won’t choose the transcendental. And the reason the ego won’t choose the transcendental is the transcendental does not need the ego there for its operation.
CS: Transcendental is trans ego.
Q: The ego is redundant from the transcendental point of view. It becomes a slave rather than a master. So the master is the transcendental state, the ego becomes the worker, the hired hand, the employee if you will, and it doesn’t like that idea.
CS: But has really good working and living conditions.
Q: Oh yes. Fantastic. That’s the biggest, the best. The ego really gets to shine if it comes from a transcendental point of view and the ego never shines enough if it comes from an ego point of view.
And again, that’s another reason why it’s called the most beautiful for the least effort. It’s not the biggest house, not the most money, not the best partner, not the biggest career. These are ego substitutes that eventually fall flat sooner or later.
CS: So the ego has an inherent knowing that it is not necessary for the transcendental and therefore it feels insecure, inherently insecure, and that’s why it’s always trying to shore itself up. And these things that Qapel just mentioned are all things that the ego tries to grab on to try to shore itself up, which makes sense, right? “I’ll be a bigger and better ego and then and then I’ll be more secure”. So that’s the more money, the superlative partner, the bigger house etcetera.
Q: Just to repeat that statement and maybe in other words: not only does the ego want freedom, but it also wants security. And this security is the root of anxiety and the hallmark of the ego. Security. There is only one security for the ego, and that is not dying. If the ego could live forever, it would. But the ego is impermanent, It goes with your death.
CS: Yes, and that’s why a human being really needs something bigger than itself, bigger than the ego, and bigger than our private lives to get into. Because no matter what I do in this lifetime, it’s over when I die.
Q: To put it another way: insecurity is fundamentally a lack of purpose. You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re just going through the paces. Mhm? So you need a purpose and you need a purpose bigger than you. It’s not enough purpose for a life to just be focused on itself because you’re a tribal member, you’re a social animal. Your purpose has to include some vision bigger than your lifetime and bigger than yourself. Otherwise, the ego will always feel insecure. This is why we have such a hard time with divorces or with children not turning out the way we want them to turn out. Or they want us to be. It’s all rooted in insecurity that we need everybody doing what we are doing, to feel secure. And nobody does what anybody else wants them to do really in the end, Right?
CS: I don’t even do what I want myself to do.
Q: Yeah, exactly. I don’t even live up to my own expectations. Private life alone is not big enough. And the only way you can fool yourself into thinking private life is big enough is by being busy, so busy that as you approach old age, you don’t realize or are shocked by the fact that everybody starts ignoring you, that you’re no longer relevant. And then all of a sudden you’re faced in your old age with being alone because you’re not a player anymore. So you need to be clear about your security. The only security there is is the transcendental state – Illness, cancer, death can’t take that away.
What is big enough? Exploration, discovery, dedication to the development of individuals in your community, creating wholesome positive human-based businesses and industries that speak to the welfare of people. It’s quite simple. if you don’t have a job like that or you don’t have a career like that, go get into one that does that kind of stuff. You’ll feel better.
CS: Or do that in your existing work. (Q: Exactly) Alleviating suffering and benefiting beings.
Q: That’s a noble purpose. You can do it through engineering, you can do it through medicine, you can do it through administration, you can do it through bookkeeping or accounting. Even accounting!!
CS: You can do it through anything.
Q: Let’s be clear though: Society has one function, one obligation and that’s to free people to explore.
